Young Woman Discusses Her Labiaplasty on National TV

It takes a lot of courage for women to get the nerve to walk into a doctor's office and express discontent with their appearance "down there." It takes even more to admit this issue on national television. But one brave woman has, and this is her story.

Shannon, a 23-year-old nursing student, recently appeared on the "Gross Anatomy" series of The Doctorsdaytime TV show to discuss her desire for a labiaplasty (plastic surgery to change the appearance of one's vaginal area).

Her desire to get the procedure done stemmed from two distinct reasons:

1) Her unhappiness with it's physical appearance
2) Physical discomfort due to her labia's shape. She has felt this way since she was a pre-teen.

"I feel like I am deformed down there," she said.

"My large labia kind of make it so that I have a constant discomfort throughout the day."

Oh, that is no bueno. (She mentions something about not being able to "fix herself" when it's painful and that clearly caused a wince while watching the interview.)

We've discussed the controversial spike in women wanting labiaplasty surgeries before - albeit because porn was popularizing the procedure. Those women just wanted their nether regions to be, well...pretty.

But according to the urologist who examined her, Dr. Jennifer Berman, the procedure needed to be done due to “anatomical abnormality” (code for her inner labia was just too big). She described it as "almost like having testicles." Ouch.

“It’s not just a cosmetic thing,” said Dr. Berman.

California plastic surgeon Dr. Grant Stevens performed Shannon's surgery and removed a few inches of skin to improve her physical outlook.

If you are still on the fence about who should and should not have surgically alter their privates, poor Shannon divulged another reason why she needed one: she has no desire to partake in the act of procreation (to put it in G-rated terms).

"I don’t really want to have sex – I try to avoid it, so it’s kind of a big strain on a relationship,” she said. "There's no pleasure."